1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of generating notes on handheld electronic devices. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system for efficiently generating notes on a handheld electronic device.
2. Related Art
As the components required to build a computer system have reduced in size, new categories of computer systems have emerged. One of the new categories of computer systems is the “palmtop” computer system. A palmtop computer system is a computer that is small enough to be held in the hand of a user and can therefore be “palm-sized.” Most palmtop computer systems are used to implement various personal information management (PIM) applications such as an address book, a daily organizer, scheduling calendar, and electronic notepads, to name a few. Palmtop computers have been known as Personal Digital Assistants (hereinafter referred to as “PDAs”).
It has proven convenient to use PDAs as information gathering and organizing tools. It is common for notes to be generated on loose paper, paper stickies, or on pages inside specialized notebooks, such as a daily planner. Notes containing ideas, telephone numbers, doodles, etc. are constantly written down anywhere and at any time. However, sometimes finding a piece of paper, any clean piece of paper, to write down information can be frustrating. Many times, as a last resort, a note taker scrambles to write a note in the margins of a page of telephone listings. The note taker then tears out the note from the page and hopes to retain the note long enough for it to be useful. A handy PDA can greatly enhance the capturing of thoughts in the form of electronic notes. On a PDA, notes can be entered and once written, the note stays with the PDA and can't be lost.
Unfortunately, accessing the note taking application on a PDA in the past has proven complicated and time consuming. To give an example, a user standing at a phone booth has need to write down a telephone number. Contrary to the touted convenience of note taking applications on a PDA in the past and before the user can jot down information, a series of steps needs to be performed on the user's PDA. The more steps needed, the less convenient a note taking application on a PDA becomes for writing notes. FIG. 1 shows a process 25 in the prior art illustrating the steps needed to use a note taking application in a PDA.
In step 26 of FIG. 1, the user must turn on the PDA. In step 27, the user taps the launcher to get to the main menu in order to access the note taking application. If by chance the note taking application is not on the first screen, as is easily the case when the PDA holds a fair number of applications, at step 27 the user must also scroll down through the screens and application icons to reach the note taking application icon. In step 28, the user accesses the note taking application by tapping on the note taking application icon. Once in the note taking application, the last note written pops on the screen. The user then needs to tap “NEW” to access a cleared screen in step 29. Only then can the user begin writing the note in step 30.
However, another hurdle may be presented to the user if the note taking application uses alphanumeric symbol recognition to create the note. Rather than writing a note as in writing on a blank sheet of paper, the user must deliberately enter the correct strokes and symbols which are translated into letters or numbers to create a legible note. Time is added since the processor in the PDA must analyze each stroke and properly translate it. Additionally, if the user is unfamiliar with the strokes, then the user must delete the incorrect symbol and try to recreate the correct symbol. Otherwise the note created may be unlegible. The user who only wanted to write a quick name and phone number is faced with a complex process to create a note that might not even be legible.
Furthermore, initially when the note taking application is opened, the last note written automatically pops up on the screen. Before the user taps “NEW” for a cleared screen, the integrity of the last note may be compromised and be accidentally erased or indiscriminately modified before it is saved.
It has also proven useful to title notes. Titling a note gives the note more importance, as in associating the note with a task, or a quick source of information, or for indexing. The note can be quickly referenced and accessed with proper titling. Unfortunately, many note taking applications summarily assign default titles to the notes, such as number 1 in a string of 20 notes. These default titles give poor identification of the note, especially if there are many notes in the PDA. Furthermore, previous applications only present the default title along with all the other note titles in a list lessening the association between title and note. Thus, a user trying to reference a phone number jotted down on the PDA that only has a default title may have to scroll through all of the notes on the PDA until the note containing the phone number is found.
Other note taking applications allow for retitling of notes. Retitling notes allows for better identification than the default titles since the titles are more personal to the user. However, all of these previous note taking applications inconveniently require a user to open a separate screen to re-title the note. After retitling, the user must go back to the screen to write the note. Also, further modifications to the title require going back to the titling screen. Moreover, these note taking applications only present the retitled title along with all the other note titles in a list, lessening the association between a title and note.
It has also proven useful to attach electronic alarms to notes further increasing the usefulness and the importance of a note written on a PDA. For example, an alarm may be attached to a note written to remind the user to pick up the laundry next week. At the appropriate time, an alarm will be triggered in the PDA alerting the user. Unfortunately, the user might not remember what the alarm is associated with. In order to find out what the alarm means, the user must again go through a series of inconvenient steps to find the note attached to the alarm. Generally, the user must turn the PDA on and search around for the note associated with the alarm. Once found, the user must actively tap on the note to view the note on the display of the PDA.
Thus, a need exists for providing a more efficient means for capturing a thought or generating notes on a handheld electronic device. Also, a need exists for providing a more efficient means for associating titles with notes. A further need exists for more efficient means for alerting a user to a note at a particular date and time.